Battlefield
by Firestar9mm
Summary: How far would you go to be good enough?


Battlefield  
  
*****  
  
The sky was pregnant with clouds, looking weary and heavy, as if it would collpase into the nearest chair and weep. The rain was violent, stirring the careful lanes of the track into so much red mud. Each drop was like another Second Impact, wounding the naked earth.  
  
She stalked along the formless lines they'd made, each step slow and loud in the echoing room. They watched with heavy-lidded eyes, knowing what was to come, what they must face.  
  
"We were supposed to do time trials today," she said as she turned her head from first one line of weary bodies in shirts and shorts to the other, "but the rain has rendered all normal physical education classes suspended."  
  
Everyone knew what that meant.  
  
The dodge ball thunked a blonde boy in the chest with a solid sound. A girl on the opposite side of the line caught it as if it were alive, staring from the hair that framed her face like black lace.  
  
The half court line separated the two formless groups. They had a split second to look at each other, and then the whistle pierced the silence, driving them apart like an electric pulse, scattering them like stardust.  
  
The echoing gymnasium was now a theater of sound; the thumps of dodge ball against body were solid and heavy. Girls who sang in chorus on other days now only grunted as they hurled the ball at their classmates. Boys who wore cologne to impress now dried the sweat from their brows as it dripped to sting their eyes.  
  
Shinji blinked to straighten the lines. They were students, then wolves, then dancers, jumping and twisting to dodge the offending missiles. Asuka was a golden solar flare high in one corner of his vision as she leapt over a shot aimed at her; Rei was an icy smudge as she knelt to scoop the ball up in her arms like a good cat.  
  
Toji was yelling something, his voice that roared so loud now lost in a sea of similar howls. His lips moved in the slow-motion choreography of a silent movie, color but no sound.  
  
Girls who shared a lunch table now scanned the thinning packs for an easy mark. Boys who fell over themselves to be ladies' men now hurled the ball with equal force at any target.  
  
They no longer had faces, bodies blanks like dolls' bodies, moving like Shinji's targeting scope moved sometimes, little and frantic and distracting. It was only when someone would slouch to the bleachers and slump into a sitting position that their face would suddenly be noticeable to him, as they chased their breath and tried to relax.  
  
Asuka spun gracefully, dodging one throw and making a throw of her own. The ball sailed in an achingly lovely curve before slamming solidly into someone's midsection. It was only when they made their slow journey to the bleachers that Asuka realized it was Hikari, eyes hurt, looking the question at her.  
  
Shinji leapt just in time to avoid a throw aimed at him from Toji. It hit Kensuke, who was behind him, knocking off his glasses. Enraged, Kensuke whacked Toji with the ball. Shinji looked at his face, naked and angry and pale without his glasses, and stepped backward. Toji had been prepared to argue the out, but at the sight of Aida's face he dropped it and headed to the bleachers.  
  
The packs were thinning out. Asuka bit the tip of her tongue. Only one left, and two on her team, with both dodge balls, so now she could just finish it. She raised her arm, sighting her unarmed prey, to make the final throw.  
  
The ball thunked her solidly in the shoulder, from the side. Arms still raised for the throw, she turned shocked eyes to Rei, who was watching her blankly, hands now empty. So did Shinji, who was unarmed on his side of the line, hands raised to block if needs be.  
  
The names were pronounced like a question, but at the same time to surprised to be a question.  
  
"Ikari. Sohryu. Ayanami."  
  
They all turned to see faces, a sea of normal faces, and one stern face with a whistle dangling from around its neck.  
  
"The game's OVER," Hikari informed them in a puzzled voice.  
  
*****  
  
Dodgeball. I never felt so trapped, so wolfish, as those days it rained and they locked us inside to prey on each other until the bell set us free.  
  
I beg for reviews, and welcome any kind as long as they're constructive. 


End file.
